Monday, February 27, 2012

The Lone Survivor

Early in 2010, Hudson Development Corporation took ownership of the one survivor from the complex of buildings that was once Hudson River Knitting Mill. In April 2010, HDC put it on the market, with an asking price of $499,000. The two years that it has been in HDC's possession seem not to have been easy ones for the building. Several windows that were not broken in 2010 are broken today--both glass and sash.

Really? I wouldn't be so flippant about the building or the parcel(s). One mans trash is another mans treasure, and frankly, there are very few buildings left of that stature, size, history, & location. $499,000 is perhaps ambitious, but the absence of imagination here is a little presumptuous.

I would hasten to add that years ago I'm sure there were many folks saying the same thing about the buildings you yourselves were buying south of third.

Please note, SlowArt and Michael O., that $499,000 was the initial asking price, set in April 2010. I have no idea if the price has been reduced over the past two years, but it seems likely that it has.

Forgive me ,but I am posting this on the run.I'm with Mr. Marston.In 2006,when I was looking to buy a house in Hudson, after renting for a year down on S.Front Street ,before the crash.I rented a great building built by a ProprietorI couldn't afford to buy anything in the 1st Ward.499k is less than the owner of the Worth House wanted.My criteria was simple. I was only buying a house built by oneof Proprietors & Co.-1784 or older. I found my Nantucket Sea Capt.'s home,off Warren on the N .Side with a central fireplace ,astonishingly in tact,due to no one ever had enough money to wreck it.Everybody on Warren wanted 600k and up then.That's why my mind was blown,when Galloway picked up all these important buildings for next to nothing. LIKE the library for 450k.Crap,if I had seen that coming ,I may have held out.I came very close to buying the Worth House,after the owner was killed in Catskilland the price dropped quite a bit ,but was still more than I had.But if I had known what was in store via Galloway,I would have done things alot differently. $499k.? that's maybe a small 1 bedroom apt in Manhattan.The Knitting Factory is a magnificent Bldg., right on the river, with land.Accessible to train,bus and foot traffic. It has parking and green space and the view of the River.

The last of its ilk standing on the River.I looked with awe and sadness at the beautiful photo's taken by Lisa Durfee of the two sister buildings right before they were reduced to rubble.My mind has been racing,Make it the New Police Station,Bldg. Dept and City courts,County Clerk ETC.Free up the Warren St buildings and put them back on the tax rolls.or make it DSS and agencies,with all the tax dollars they are wasting now,that is going to mushroom within a very short time.Make it the Youth & Senior Centre.,with plenty of Green Space. and space to spare. Anything ,but tear it down,due to the negligence HDC.Its been off the tax roll for years now anyway,and the millions of tax dollars the County and Moore and Scalera & CO are are playing around with ,with any of these projects,that building could serve of a lot of needs and solve a lot problemsAnd be a beautiful Landmark that Hudson could be proud of. But then to hear this news.The possibilities there are endless,with the right stewardI really hope Carole's ear to the ground ,pans out and Rob Kalin,Parachutes in to the rescue! To make it a private enterprise,on the tax roll,and provide employment.And save this Landmark. This would be wonderful.

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About The Gossips of Rivertown

This blog takes its name from the 1850 novel by Hudson author Alice B. Neal. The original Gossips of Rivertown cast a gimlet eye on Hudson society in the mid-19th century. More than a century and a half later, the new Gossips carries on the spirit of the original, but in a different genre and with a different focus.